those of us who work on them everyday, have been asking this for a while.
I believe it's a combination of: "new MBZ techniques" like,
building them as light as possible,
as cheap as possible,
forgetting all of what made their reputation in the first place,
competing with asian cars- by building comparable products,
no longer caring about building a durable product,
forgetting what put them on the map in the first place!
I'm just a guy with an opinion,,,,,,but I have seen my share of Benzes, being a thrid gen tech who's worked on them exclusively for 21 years.
One thing's for certain....
They sure don't build 'em like the used to ! 